News stories by Carey L. Biron, page 23

WASHINGTON, Jan 28 (IPS) - A bipartisan group of U.S. senators on Monday unveiled a set of principles that will serve as an initial framework for a legislative push that many are increasingly optimistic could result in the largest overhaul of the country's immigration system in decades.

WASHINGTON, Jan 28 (IPS) - Nearly 20 of the world's largest creditor countries have announced that they would be cutting nearly half of Myanmar's total foreign debt, worth some six billion dollars.

WASHINGTON, Jan 25 (IPS) - Following on a surprise announcement, U.S. Secretary of Defence Leon Panetta on Thursday confirmed that the U.S. military will be rolling back a nearly two-decade-old ban on women in the U.S. military serving in frontline combat positions.

WASHINGTON, Jan 24 (IPS) - The International Finance Corporation (IFC), the World Bank Group arm that focuses on the private sector, announced Wednesday that it would be backing a new microfinance institution in Myanmar aimed at reaching 200,000 people by 2020.

WASHINGTON, Jan 22 (IPS) - Following surprisingly forceful statements on the threat of global climate change by President Barack Obama during his second inaugural address on Monday, campaigners here are expressing cautious optimism that a second Obama administration will be able to see through some of the substantive actions on carbon reduction that largely eluded the president's first term.

WASHINGTON, Jan 18 (IPS) - Activists and watchdog groups across the United States unveiled a new national push on Thursday to urge policymakers to roll back a controversial 2010 Supreme Court decision that led to the unprecedented spending of about 6 billion dollars, much of it untraceable, during recent national elections.

WASHINGTON, Jan 16 (IPS) - Unveiling the most extensive gun control proposal in generations, U.S. President Barack Obama on Wednesday signed nearly two dozen executive orders and called on the U.S. Congress to enact a legislative package to blunt the country's growing trend of gun violence.

WASHINGTON, Jan 15 (IPS) - U.S. Secretary of Defence Leon Panetta has applauded France's surprise airstrikes on Islamist rebels in northern Mali that began late last week and continued over the weekend.

WASHINGTON, Jan 12 (IPS) - Worried over the possibility of further escalation of armed conflict in Myanmar, activists here are calling on Washington to take stronger action to condemn state forces for aerial bombardment of ethnic Kachin rebels and civilians in the country's north, which some say constitutes crimes against humanity.

WASHINGTON, Jan 10 (IPS) - Even as government negotiators from around the world prepare to gather next week for a final round of talks on a new international treaty limiting the use of mercury, scientists and activists are warning that the draft treaty is both too weak and too limited in scope to have a major impact.